Damien435
Active member
So, here is a timeline of my military career as it appears that door is now shut for me.
July 1st, 2004: Join the Army
July 2004 - June 2005: Army Delayed Entry Program
June 15th, 2005: Discharged from Army, torn left ACL, ironically this would have been my parents' 20th wedding anniversary.
April 2006: Cleared by MEPS to re-enlist
April 2006: Rejected by MEPS, Reason: Mandatory one year wait between knee surgery and re-enlistment, recruiter didn't do their homework.
June 2007: Rejected once again by MEPS, Reason: Need to have screws in knee removed.
June 2007: I give up on joining military.
This is pretty much just a rant, I'm really pissed off at MEPS, my recruiter in Brookings, SD, and the Army in general. Despite the opinion of my orthopedic surgeon, that removing the screws will do more damage to my knee than leaving them in, MEPS is convinced I need them removed. This will be considered elective surgery since it is not necessary and my insurance won't cover it, which leaves me responsible for paying out of my own pocket. It's odd, I was fine with essentially signing my life away when joining the Army the first time knowing full well that I could die, yet I won't fork over $10,000 to pay for unnecessary surgery to join an organization with an annual budget of $600,000,000,000. If the Army feels so strongly that I need this surgery why won't they pay for it? At the rate the Pentagon spends money it should only take 2.3792 seconds to approve the surgery.
I guess the lesson here, to any of you thinking about joining is this: If you think you have any injuries don't take it upon yourself to find out before shipping to basic. Aggravate the injury at basic because then it becomes the Army's problem, not yours. At least that's what I learned from all this.
July 1st, 2004: Join the Army
July 2004 - June 2005: Army Delayed Entry Program
June 15th, 2005: Discharged from Army, torn left ACL, ironically this would have been my parents' 20th wedding anniversary.
April 2006: Cleared by MEPS to re-enlist
April 2006: Rejected by MEPS, Reason: Mandatory one year wait between knee surgery and re-enlistment, recruiter didn't do their homework.
June 2007: Rejected once again by MEPS, Reason: Need to have screws in knee removed.
June 2007: I give up on joining military.
This is pretty much just a rant, I'm really pissed off at MEPS, my recruiter in Brookings, SD, and the Army in general. Despite the opinion of my orthopedic surgeon, that removing the screws will do more damage to my knee than leaving them in, MEPS is convinced I need them removed. This will be considered elective surgery since it is not necessary and my insurance won't cover it, which leaves me responsible for paying out of my own pocket. It's odd, I was fine with essentially signing my life away when joining the Army the first time knowing full well that I could die, yet I won't fork over $10,000 to pay for unnecessary surgery to join an organization with an annual budget of $600,000,000,000. If the Army feels so strongly that I need this surgery why won't they pay for it? At the rate the Pentagon spends money it should only take 2.3792 seconds to approve the surgery.
I guess the lesson here, to any of you thinking about joining is this: If you think you have any injuries don't take it upon yourself to find out before shipping to basic. Aggravate the injury at basic because then it becomes the Army's problem, not yours. At least that's what I learned from all this.